Welcome to February! This is the time of year where we starting thinking about the spring garden. Making your own Seed Tape saves you time & energy when you are planting your garden.
Some seeds are very tiny & getting the proper spacing when planting directly into the soil can be a painstakingly torturous.
Seed Tape
Seed tape allows you to space your seed according to the producers guidelines, allowing for adequate room for the roots and saving you time (and money) by not having to thin your seedlings later on.
Making the tape is really quite simple.
You will need:
- a fresh roll of toilet paper
- 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp water
- tweezers
- a sharpie or pen
Instructions:
- I am using 4′ lengths of toilet paper to fit into my Cedar Planter Boxes, but you can use any length you prefer. I tear off several strips at a time.
2. Once you have a few strips of toilet paper ripped off to your desired length, cut them all in half lengthwise, doubling the number of strips you have to use.
3. Seperate you layers of sliced toilet paper. We will use 1 layer at a time.
4. Mix up a quick batch of glue by combining flour & water. Mix well to work out all the lumps. The result should be the consistency of crafters glue. This will be the glue that holds your seeds in place and seals the tape closed.
5.Always refer back to the planting recommendations on the seed packet. This is Carrots from Vesey Seeds which tells me to space the seeds 1″ apart.(This is not an affiliate link).
6. Add a tiny drop of ‘glue” at the appropriate intervals, placing 1 seed in each drop.
7. Once all your seeds are placed, gently fold your strip in half lengthwise, pressing on each dollop of glue. If you have planted seeds that require much bigger gaps between seeds, you may want to add more glue to ensure the strip holds your seeds.
8. Label your strip so you know what you are planting.
9. Hang to dry for a couple hours.
10 Roll or fold your tapes for easy storage until planting season.
And that’s all there is to it!!! Buy seed tape can be really costly, but this is a cheap, environmentally safe way to do the same thing. It just takes some time to set up, then you can power through to make your gardening season a little easier!
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